Diagnosis based on vibration analysis is a method that has many benefits to offer. It is easy to implement the method on existing transmissions by attaching accelerometers outside the gearbox housing. If you have knowledge of the gearbox geometry, such as number of tooth on the gears and types of bearings, and any unwanted frequencies can be filtered out a good estimation of the gearbox condition can be achieved. In this thesis a number of condition indicators have been tested to identify and isolate different faults that may appear. All analysing have been done in the time domain on different synchronously averaged signals. The condition indicators have been used together with diagnosis theory from the division of Vehicular systems to create a diagnosis system able to find faults on a number of modelled signals.

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The aim of this research is to investigate the feasibility of using stress waves for condition monitoring of gears. The project involved setting up an experimental rig, carrying out experimental work, acquiring stress waves signatures, and processing the signals. It has been shown that stress waves can successfully be employed for early detection of incipient gear failure. A experimental gearbox was employed during the experiments. Miniature ultrasound transducers, both sensitive and sufficiently small, were manufactured and installed on the stationary outer race of the rolling element bearing of the gearbox to detect stress waves from the meshing gears. The stress waves signals from the transducers were digitised and digitally processed to extract relevant information. The signatures were high-pass filtered at a cut-off frequency of 200 kHz, thus representing exclusive ultrasonic frequencies. A new statistical parameter, Energy Index, was developed and performed on the stress wave signatures which were segmented to represent individual gear teeth. Along with this new parameter, the classical statistical parameters, (Peaks, RMS, Standard Deviation, Kurtosis, etc.) were also performed. Conclusive results are presented in graphical form in terms of Cumulative Energy Indices' and Energy Indices in polar form for individual gear teeth. A new algorithrn was also developed and presented for the envelope detection of signal by iterative peak detection. Although no direct comparison was made between condition monitoring of gears using stress waves and methods such as low frequency vibration analysis and wear debris analysis, it is apparent that stress waves monitoring offers a much earlier warning of incipient gear failure because the technique can detect material defonnations which are precursors to changes in the dynamic properties of gears and the occurrence of wear debris. The technique, therefore, can predict incipient failure much earlier, extending the lead-time before failure, and as a result, minimising sudden failures which may have catastrophic consequences.

This thesis presents a comprehensive methodology for predicting and minimising the noise radiated from a constant speed gearbox assembly by means of attaching optimally placed stiffening ribs on the casing. The procedure involves building an FE model of the gearbox, which is updated using modal parameters extracted from a modal test. This is followed by synthesis of the required FRFs with respect to the forcing degrees-of-freedom. The forces, which are assumed to act only at the bearings are identified from these FRFs and the measured operational velocities of the casing. The identified forces are then used to excite the updated FE model to re-calculate the vibration velocities. A boundary element method is used to calculate the final radiated sound power to be compared with that measured. The same forces are used later to excite the modified gearbox casing to determine the improvement given by optimised modification. The optimisation study minimises the vibration energy of the casing in 10% bands around critical frequencies, in this case the first two harmonics of the gearmesh frequency. To allow for errors in the model, the excitation is by white noise, so as to produce wide stop bands, rather than minimising the response at particular frequencies. The vibration energy is weighted for radiation efficiency, A-weighting, and relative source strength in the bands. The final optimal stiffener layout is validated through a final vibration and acoustic calculation on the updated gearbox model using the forces identified in the earlier steps. The study of one particular gearbox concludes that i) the proposed hybrid optimisation scheme produces a theoretical effective noise reduction of 3 dBA for the total sound power. ii) Because the gearmesh harmonics were targeted, a further 5 dB improvement was effectively gained by eliminating the tonal penalty which otherwise applied. iii) From plate studies it was demonstrated that the stiffening ribs could be attached using epoxy cement (to avoid welding) and that the properties of the cemented joint could be determined by model updating after attaching one rib, so as to obtain a better prediction of the final optimised result.

Structural topology optimization methods have existing and been improving theoretically since 1980s; however, in industry, with respect to the certain conditions, proper modification is always desired. This study develops a specific method to utilize topology optimization for gearbox housing design. Gearbox housing maintains the position of the shafts to ensure the precision of gear engagement in all operational states (Naunheimer, et al., 2010). The current housing design processing used in Vicura AB, a Swedish powertrain company, is able to achieve stiff optimal housing material distribution, but difficult to fulfil gear misalignment requirement. This work overcomes the above shortages to develop a new methodology for gearbox housing topology optimization concerning the gear misalignment as well. The paper is starting with an introduction of the previous method and its defects, followed by a discussion of three possible improvements. Only one of them is feasible and two main difficulties need to be resolved to make it applicable. One of the difficulties is finding a linear assumption of the non-linear components and the other is deriving an approach for topology optimization involving both external forces and non-zero prescribed displacements. The corresponding solutions are described subsequently in detail both theoretically and practically. Then the results by implementing the new method and also the comparison with the results getting from the old method are presented. Finally, a validation of the new method is discussed and the conclusions and comments are given.

This thesis covers the scope of one out of many ways to diagnose gearboxes, demodulating the excited vibrational signals to enhance fault detection and identification. The topic is not only of academic interest since the achievements that can be made by successful machine condition monitoring in the industry. It has a potential value that is close to be absurd, for example unplanned production stops is commonly known to be one of the worst nightmares for manufacturing companies and if one can detect faults in early stages one can improve the possibilityto plan a production stop and therefore increase the profit. Four demodulation algorithms were developed and implemented in MATLAB on data characterized by close to stationarity and distinctive energy centered around the harmonics of the gearmesh frequency. The resulting algorithms for narrowband phase and amplitude demodulation was shown to outperform Hilbert transform based phase and amplitude demodulation algorithms in gearbox diagnostics. One of the goals with the thesis was therefore reached; demodulation algorithms were developed and implemented on data. A comparison of these algorithms was done and a conclusion of which demodulation technique is superior was done. Experimental work was carried out on a test-rig and both local and distributed faults were introduced to two gearboxes, one kind of fault per gearbox. However, the data acquired from the test-rig showed severe non-stationarity and smeared spectrum properties even when angular resampling was performed and therefore a major drawback of the demodulation techniques was exploited since the methods for demodulation in this thesis are not applicable for signals with smeared spectrums. The other goal was therefore not accomplished; to distinguish a local fault from a distributed fault in data acquired by experimental work by applying the selected demodulation techniques.

No description available.

This thesis presents a comprehensive methodology for predicting and minimising the noise radiated from a constant speed gearbox assembly by means of attaching optimally placed stiffening ribs on the casing. The procedure involves building an FE model of the gearbox, which is updated using modal parameters extracted from a modal test. This is followed by synthesis of the required FRFs with respect to the forcing degrees-of-freedom. The forces, which are assumed to act only at the bearings are identified from these FRFs and the measured operational velocities of the casing. The identified forces are then used to excite the updated FE model to re-calculate the vibration velocities. A boundary element method is used to calculate the final radiated sound power to be compared with that measured. The same forces are used later to excite the modified gearbox casing to determine the improvement given by optimised modification. The optimisation study minimises the vibration energy of the casing in 10% bands around critical frequencies, in this case the first two harmonics of the gearmesh frequency. To allow for errors in the model, the excitation is by white noise, so as to produce wide stop bands, rather than minimising the response at particular frequencies. The vibration energy is weighted for radiation efficiency, A-weighting, and relative source strength in the bands. The final optimal stiffener layout is validated through a final vibration and acoustic calculation on the updated gearbox model using the forces identified in the earlier steps. The study of one particular gearbox concludes that i) the proposed hybrid optimisation scheme produces a theoretical effective noise reduction of 3 dBA for the total sound power. ii) Because the gearmesh harmonics were targeted, a further 5 dB improvement was effectively gained by eliminating the tonal penalty which otherwise applied. iii) From plate studies it was demonstrated that the stiffening ribs could be attached using epoxy cement (to avoid welding) and that the properties of the cemented joint could be determined by model updating after attaching one rib, so as to obtain a better prediction of the final optimised result.

A gearbox simulator is developed as platform for testing and demonstrating purposes. For that, a rig composed by a mechanical system and electronic equipment for controlling two servomotors is used. The objective of this equipment is to simulate the forces that the gearbox would transmit to the gear lever when the gear change operation is being carried-out. To reach this goal, a program is developed in LabVIEW to command the servomotors, emulating the forces by controlling the output torque and transmitting them to the gear stick as it would be in a real gearbox, taking into account real force-angle curves. Also, a graphical user interface is developed in order to monitor the simulator performance ad ease the way the data is chosen and introduced into the software.As seen in the experiment results, the graphs present similarities in shape and magnitude, which is important in regards of feeling; a better performance could be reach suppressing some system constraints.

No description available.